On my recent visit to the cardiologist, we spent some time discussing medication. The one that caused me to black out and partake in ground kissing and the replacement/s needed to control my BP since then. He had a query about the latest option.
“Have you got your list?” he asked. After eight months, he remembered I carried a typed list of medications and potted medical history. Again, he said “I wish more patients kept an up-to-date list like this. You would not believe the number of patients who cannot remember the names of their medications!”
So for what it is worth I am producing my version of the list that appealed to him. It may encourage some of you to produce and carry your own version with you, if medications are part of your daily diet.
medication list
* Nowadays we are all reduced to being a number! 🙁
Phone the bank, utility provider or mobile phone provider with a query and they will ask for an account number.
For anything in connection with pensions, health care, driving licence or bus passes, we in the UK must provide our National Insurance Number. The latter is the number I mean for the starred number above. It may have a different name where you live.
In the unfortunate case of you falling down in a faint, an event so common in the days of the Bronte sisters or Jane Austen… yes those days of corsets and eighteen inch waists, everyone carried smelling salts, the cure all for every situation! Today with the mood change to ‘let it all hang out’ there is ner a mention of, or a place to carry the salts.
A list like mine might well save time and your life! Make one for yourself and save it to your computer. It will be easy to update any changes and print a new copy.
Stay well.
Only one pill daily in my case, and I remember the name easily. But I can see that if you’re on a cocktail of pills, you’re never going to remember all the names and an aide memoire like that (with your GP’s name) is a good idea.
Nick, I can see the list idea being of use to diabetics, cardiac and others with complicated health issues.
I have been doing this for years. I even carry the number assigned to my wife’s heart valve replacement (it’s a bovine valve) just in case of emergency, as well as the numbers of my cataract replacement lenses. You never know.
A list like that is no weight to carry and saves time in an emergency.
When my mom was here, I always carried a list of her meds with us to doctors, etc.
No meds for me . . . yet.
How fortunate you are, Nancy, may you be meds free for many a long year!
Thanks! And may you stay mobile for many a long year. Enjoy the freedom you’ve regained.
Real freedom begins after the car goes through MOT on 9 June. Fingers. knees and toes crossed!
I have a list of medications and dosage in my wallet and give it to the nurse or doctor when they ask about the meds I am taking.
Having mine printed means the medics can read it! 😆
One of these days, Daughter keeps saying, there will be a chip embedded in everyone’s wrist, but until then…….follow GM’s good advice.
XO
WWW
WWW, when the time comes. I hope I won’t be allergic to the embedded chip! 😆
This is great, Grannymar, and extremely useful. One less thing to keep in an overcrowded mind, too!
Kate, certainly saves remembering all those Latin names!
So right, I have one in my wallet that the clinic gave out to be filled in.
Celia, your clinics are ahead of ours, Mine was my own idea, more to remember the long list of stuff I am allergic too, than that which I can take.
I carry a similar list and so does my husband.
Judy, I am pleased to hear it. Here in Ireland people seem scared to carry such a list, just like they are superstitious to write a will, in case it brings death closer!
This is a great format! I do have some medicine allergies that I should carry with me in case something happens to me. I’ve been thinking of getting a medic-alert bracelet too.
Delores, recording the medicine allergies, could save your life in an emergency. We are responsible for our own lives, so a little note in a purse or wallet is a very good idea.
This is a great idea. I have sent a link to this blog post to some of my friends with similar problems, Luckily for me the only medication that I have to take is a vitamin pill every morning and if I forget no big deal. I however carry some analgesic m/r pills just in case.